


Public Displays Of Affection

by decadent_mousse



Category: Pacific Rim (2013)
Genre: Awkward Flirting, Dancing, First Date, First Kiss, Fluff, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-11-09
Updated: 2013-11-09
Packaged: 2017-12-31 23:40:42
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,164
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1037770
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/decadent_mousse/pseuds/decadent_mousse
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The next day, they were walking through the mess hall when Newt reached out to grab Hermann’s hand only to have it almost immediately swatted away.  There was this long moment where he just sort of had his hand sticking awkwardly out in mid-air before letting his arm drop back down at his side.  </p>
<p>Not here.  Later.  It was less like Hermann’s voice was actually in his head and more like a sort of feeling or… thought-feeling, maybe.  It didn’t feel angry or upset – it was almost sort of embarrassed, but that wasn’t exactly it either.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Public Displays Of Affection

**Author's Note:**

> This fic is a sort of spin-off-ish interquel-y companion piece *thing* (I am extremely eloquent) to my Side Effects May Include... series. It takes in the couple of days right after Side Effects Of Drifting May Include Hypersomnia, Temporary Telepathy, And Excessive Cuddling. 
> 
> I wasn't sure whether I should add it to the series proper or not because it jumps back chronologically from where the last one left off, so... I'm also planning on a couple more fics along these lines, so I'm not sure if I should make it it's own series or just go ahead and put them with main series. So, if anyone has any advice on how I should maybe handle that, I'd be most appreciative. <3

“Hey, Hermann!”  Newt didn’t _run_ after him when he saw him the next morning, because that would’ve been silly, but he did walk after him very, very quickly.

Thankfully Hermann took pity on him and waited for him to catch up, a vaguely amused expression on his face. 

“You could’ve woken me up, dude,” Newt huffed as he closed the distance between them. 

“You were resting comfortably.  I didn’t want to disturb you.”

He shrugged.  “I just– it would’ve been nice to wake up with you, that’s all.  You can disturb me any time.”

“Any time?  Really?”  Newt wasn’t entirely sure he trusted that tone.

“Within reason, dude.  Don’t abuse it.”

“Well, then.  Next time, I will wake you.”

_Next time_.  There was going to be a next time.  Newt grinned.

~

The next day, they were walking through the mess hall when Newt reached out to grab Hermann’s hand only to have it almost immediately swatted away.  There was this long moment where he just sort of had his hand sticking awkwardly out in mid-air before letting his arm drop back down at his side. 

_Not here.  Later._   It was less like Hermann’s voice was actually in his head and more like a sort of feeling or… thought-feeling, maybe.  It didn’t feel angry or upset – it was almost sort of embarrassed, but that wasn’t exactly it either.

Newt understood – or was pretty sure he did, anyway.  He probably should have known Hermann wasn’t the type for public displays of affection.  _I guess that means grabbing your ass is totally out of the question, then._

He wasn’t exactly sure how much of that Hermann had caught, but he shot him a warning look, a flustered blush spreading across his cheeks.

“Sorry, dude,” Newt chuckled.

“You are incorrigible,” the other man grumbled, but something that felt an awful like affection tickled the back of his brain.

~

Later in the day, they both ended up on the couch in their lab.  There was work to do, sure, but not a whole lot, and they were both still pretty tired. 

For once, _Newt_ had been the one to suggest they take a break.  He wasn’t used to being the voice of reason between the two of them, but he was pretty sure Hermann had done nothing but stare at the same equation for the past hour, and he knew _he_ could barely focus on anything.  His brain felt scrambled – though not literally, he had went and gotten a CAT scan after lunch, just be sure. 

He didn’t remember falling asleep, but he must have at some point, because he closed his eyes for just a second and the next thing he knew he was waking up with his head on Hermann’s shoulder. 

“Are you awake?”

“No,” Hermann replied.

Newt snorted and rubbed his eyes as he sat up.  “Yeah, me neither.”

Hermann smiled and it wasn’t one of those smiles he liked to throw around when he was feeling all smug and superior or was being sarcastic, but like, a _smile_ smile – the warm, sincere kind that made Newt’s heart dance around in his chest.  Newt had seen more of that smile in the past twenty-four hours than he had, well, _ever_ , and it was amazing.  He was pretty sure he was addicted to it.  It was kind of like finding out someone’s secretly ticklish, and then having this _itch_ to tickle them all the time just because you know you can – he wanted to make Hermann smile more.  He also now wondered if he was ticklish. 

He casually reached over and squiggled his fingers across Hermann’s ribs.

“What on earth are you doing?” Hermann asked, a bit incredulous but otherwise unbothered.

Definitely not ticklish, then – at least, not in that area.

Newt grinned.  “Nothing.”

Hermann side-eyed him with narrowed, suspicious eyes, but Newt caught a thought-feeling along the lines of _adorable idiot_ that completely contradicted it.  “Nothing?”

“Nope, nothing.  Can’t a guy just–“ he squiggled his fingers across another area of Hermann’s torso, “-for no reason?”

“You’re wasting your time, you know.  I’m _not_ ticklish.” 

“…Said every ticklish person _ever_.”

As he darted for another potential ticklish spot, Hermann caught his hand and held onto it.  Newt’s heart totally did not flutter – that was cheesy romance novel stuff, not something that actually happened, right?  He couldn’t really think of a better word for it though so yeah, okay, maybe it did flutter.  A little bit.

He licked his lips nervously.  “H-hey, do you want to go get dinner?  Like, out?  Somewhere?”  Very smooth.  God, he was so bad at this.  He’d never been _good_ at it, but he was even worse now.  He couldn’t remember the last time he’d asked anyone out on a date – it had to have been at least… five years?  Six?  _Six years_ , holy shit.

“Yes.”

“Yes?!”

Hermann gave him an amused look.  “I’m sorry, did you want me to say ‘no?’”

“What?  No!  I–“  Newt caught himself and rolled his eyes.  “Oh sure, laugh it up.  My seduction methods are a little rusty, okay?”

“Good lord, that was you trying to be _seductive_?”

Newt elbowed him.

~

The place they went to for dinner used to be the kind of place that required reservations a week in advance to actually get into.  It wasn’t that exclusive these days, and not many people ate there at all anymore.  On the bright side, it did have a really fantastic view of the ocean, which – now that Newt thought about it – probably accounted for the decline in its popularity. 

He hadn’t really dressed up much for the date, and he’d been relieved to find out Hermann hadn’t, either.  Newt was very much a casual dating attire kind of guy, and Hermann wasn’t a huge fan of formal wear either, he knew.  Fortunately the restaurant had long since stopped being picky about its dress code.  Newt _had_ taken the time to try to fix up his jacket at least a little bit – he’d been in a hurry and gotten the stitching a little crooked when he’d sewn up the tear in the shoulder, but it wasn’t really noticeable.

They got a table near a large window that gave a great sprawling view of the coastline.  Newt thought it was pretty awesome, especially since there wasn’t any danger of a kaiju emerging from the sea to ruin their date.  Probably not, anyway.  He hoped.

It occurred to him as he sat there next to the window, feeling like something was going to pop out of the ocean at any second, that maybe this restaurant hadn’t been the best choice.  He had thought it would be fine, but now that he was sitting there, he felt… really, really _not_ fine.

“Newton, are you alright?”

Newt looked at Hermann, saw the concern on his face, and blurted, “Would you like to sit somewhere else?”

“God, yes.  Please.”

~

Newt felt much better once they settled into another spot in the restaurant – one far, far away from any windows and nestled in the corner of two walls.  He could tell Hermann did, too.  This was definitely much, much better.

“There’s so much stuff on this menu, I have no idea what to even order, dude,” Newt said, staring at the menu until all the names of the various dishes started to bleed into one another.  He couldn’t even remember the last time he’d gone out to eat like this.  It was nice, but it was _weird_. 

Hermann peered at him over the rims of his reading glasses.  “I find myself at a bit of a loss, as well.”

“Maybe we should order one of everything,” Newt mused.

“Newton.”

“I mean, yeah, that would be expensive, but I could afford it.  Hell, we’re heroes, they might even give it to us for free.”

“Newton _, no_.”

~

Several extravagant platters of food later, Newt was happy and full and Hermann was regarding him with an expression of mild horror. 

“Good lord.”

“I know right?  Those wontons were amazing.”  He had a thought.  Grinning, he added, “They were really _wanton_ , dude.”

Hermann rolled his eyes so hard they looked like they were going to fall out of his head.

“Didn’t you like the food?”

“I enjoyed the food.  I just don’t quite share the same level of, ah, enthusiasm for eating as you do.”

Oh.  Newt felt the blush creeping onto his face.

Hermann’s gaze softened.  “That wasn’t what I–“

Newt shook his head vigorously, looking down at his empty plate.  “No, that’s okay.  I get it.  I ate a lot.”

“Newton.”

“Yeah?”  He didn’t look up until he heard Hermann’s chair scoot back.

Hermann came around the table and approached him.  “Would you care to dance?”

Newt hadn’t even realized there was music playing.  It wasn’t really his genre – just some soft, instrumental thing playing in the background.  He gaped at him.  “Dude, I didn’t know you _could_ dance.”

Hermann looked offended.

Newt hastily added, “Wait, no, dude.  _No_.  I didn’t mean it like that.  I just– I didn’t think you were into music and dancing and… stuff.  You’re usually so– I mean.  _Yes_.  Yes, I would love to dance with you.  Is that a trick question?”

The mathematician smiled and laid his cane against the table.  “Then, shall we?”

Newt scrambled out of his chair so fast he almost tripped over himself.  He had never slow-danced a day in his life, and he was pretty sure this was going to end with someone getting stepped on, but he couldn’t say _no_.  He would just have to wing it.  He let Hermann lead him out onto the dance floor, where a handful other people were dancing with varying degrees of enthusiasm.  Other couples, mostly, and holy shit, were _they_ a couple now? 

“The first time you step on my toes, this is over,” Hermann said.

“Well, we’re probably not gonna last very long then, dude, because I have _no idea_ what I’m doing.”

Hermann made an amused noise.

“What’s so funny?”

“You.  Admitting that you don’t know how to dance.”

“Dude, I _know_ how to dance.  I just don’t know how to–“

“Move in a coordinated manner?”

“’Slow down,’ I was going to say.”  He smiled sheepishly, “But yeah that, too, probably.”

Hermann wrapped an arm around his waist and gently pulled him in close.  “Just let me lead.”

“Yeah, okay.”  Newt wiggled his eyebrows.  “Where do my hands go?”

Hermann gave him an exasperated look.

“No, dude, I wasn’t– Well, okay, I _was_ , but seriously.  Where do I put them?”

“Put your left hand on my shoulder, and give me your other hand.”

Okay, that wasn’t so bad.  He could do that. 

Hermann’s hand settled against the small of Newt’s back and that was really distracting.  Not bad, just distracting.  His other hand wrapped around his and before Newt really had time to process any of this, they were doing it.  They were dancing.  They weren’t dancing particularly _well_ – or at least, he wasn’t.  He was just sort of awkwardly shuffling along trying to mirror Hermann’s movements, which were… pretty graceful, actually.

“How’d you learn to dance so well?” Newt asked suspiciously.

“I took lessons.”

“You took _lessons_?  Where was I?”

Hermann gave him a fond look – well, the _look_ was annoyed, the feeling attached to it whispered _fond_.  “Believe it or not, I did have a life before I met you.”

“Sure,” Newt scoffed, “a sad, _hollow_ life.”

“Hardly,” Hermann replied, “but it has… improved somewhat.  Perhaps.”

Newt tilted his head slightly to look at him.  “Yeah?”

“Yes.”  Hermann was sort of _gazing_ at him really intently and Newt caught a hint of a jumble of emotions he couldn’t quite identify, but they made his legs feel a bit noodly.

Unfortunately in the middle of a dance floor probably wasn’t a great time for a sudden case of noodle legs.  Newt stepped wrong, and it threw him off so bad that by the third wrong step he felt his foot come down on what he was pretty sure was–

“ _Newton_ ,” Hermann hissed.

~

“Well,” Hermann said as they approached his quarters.  “Here we are.”

“Yep.”

“Dinner was lovely.”

Newt snorted.  “Are you kidding?  It was a disaster.”

“Be that as it may, I, ah, I had a very good time.”

He felt a blush threatening to creep up his neck.  “Yeah.  Yeah, me too.” 

He wanted to kiss him, but he wasn’t sure if he should.  It seemed weird to be worrying about that when they’d already slept together once, but they hadn’t _done_ anything.  This thing they were doing – this _romance_ thing – was still really new.  Hermann struck him as an old-fashioned kind of guy – the kind that probably didn’t kiss until the third date, at least, and that was fine, Newt didn’t want to rush him.  He could wait.  Even if he really, _really_ wanted to kiss him.  Among other things.

“Newton.”

Hermann was looking at him with this soft, tender expression on his face, and Newt really wasn’t sure what to do with that.  He liked it, of course he liked it – he _loved_ it – but if anyone had told him a year ago, or hell, even a few days ago, that _Hermann_ would ever look at him like that, he would have laughed in their face.  He had long since resigned himself to the fact that it was just not a thing that was going to happen, ever, and had just added it to the list of other things that weren’t going to happen: be in a wildly successful rock band, have a mom that actually returned his phone calls, and – yep, right at the end there – be loved back by Dr. Hermann Gottlieb.  Of course, maybe it was a little early to be calling it _love_ , but it was already a hell of a lot closer than he’d ever thought he was going to get. 

He realized Hermann was still waiting for a response while he stood there like idiot.  He managed an extremely eloquent, “Huh?”

Hermann’s mouth twitched, and he took a step forward.  “You?  At a loss for words?  I never thought I’d see the day.”

Newt opened his mouth to say something.  He wasn’t even entirely sure _what_ he was going to say, but he was kind of hoping he’d have some sort of last-minute epiphany and manage to blurt out something perfect and romantic, because otherwise it was going to be a pretty anti-climactic end to an otherwise great evening.

That’s when Hermann leaned in and kissed him, and even if Newt had known what he was going to say, he probably would have forgotten it at that point.  He stood very still for a few seconds and just let Hermann do the kissing, because it was really soft and gentle, and he was afraid if he moved or blinked or breathed, he was going to ruin it.  Then Hermann’s free hand lifted to cup his cheek and that was just–  _Screw it_ , he thought, and Hermann must have heard it, because he made an amused noise that might’ve  been a laugh if he hadn’t still been busy kissing him.

Newt wasn’t sure where to put his hands – his first instinct was to make a move for Hermann’s ass, but he was _definitely_ sure that would be too much too soon, so after floundering for a second, he moved in a little closer and wrapped his arms around his waist.  That seemed like the right call, because Hermann’s hand moved to the back of Newt’s neck and the kiss deepened, and Newt just resigned himself to the fact that his life was turning into one huge romantic cliché, because he could have sworn he saw stars.  That, or his brain wasn’t getting enough oxygen and it was making him see spots.  He kind of liked the stars idea better - it wasn’t very scientific, but – yeah, no, okay, he really did need to breathe.

He broke the kiss with a shaky laugh.  “Wow.”

“I apologize,” Hermann said, “I may have gotten a bit, ah, over-enthusiastic.”

“Dude, you never, ever, _ever_ have to apologize for kissing me.  Especially like that, holy shit.  Give me a minute to catch my breath and you can even do it again.”

There was that smile again.  God.

“Okay,” Newt whispered, “I’ve caught my breath.”

“It’s been all of two seconds, Newton, how could you possibly–“

Newt kissed him passionately.  It was brief, because yeah, he hadn’t _actually_ finished catching his breath.

“Am I going to have to physically restrain you so you don’t kiss your way into severe oxygen deprivation?” Hermann asked in an amused tone.

Newt laid his head on his shoulder.  “Maybe.”

“Honestly, Newton.  What am I going to do with you?”

Newt could think of a few things – more than a few, actually.  He grinned.

Hermann made a strangled noise.  “ _Newton_.”

Oops.  He wondered how long this weird telepathy thing was going to last.  The idea of it being permanent was a little terrifying, especially if it meant accidentally broadcasting his sexual fantasies all the time.  “Look, we can take this as slow as you want, dude.  I, uh– Oh come on, you aren’t really going to hold _thinking_ about it against me, are you?”

“It was just… very vivid.”

“Well, I have a very vivid imagination.”  He pulled away to look at Hermann.  “But I mean, you get that I’m not trying to push you into anything, right?  I mean, sure I think about those things– I mean _look_ at you, of course I think about it, but–“

Hermann blushed.  “I’m not ready.”

“That’s okay, dude.”

“…But I will be.  Soon.”

Newt swallowed hard.  “How soon is ‘soon?’”

Hermann stared at him intently.  “Are you available next week?”

“Next week?!” he exclaimed.  He didn’t squeak – rock stars didn’t squeak. 

“Is that too soon for you?”

He laughed, he couldn’t help it.  “Too soon for _me_?  That’s–  Dude, no, that’s fine.  Next week works for me.  Next week is great.  Absolutely!  Did– did you have a particular day in mind, or…?”

The mathematician got a glint in his eye that Newt would have called mischievous if it had been anyone else – he wasn’t used to seeing it on _Hermann_ , of all people.  “I was thinking of surprising you.”

Holy shit.  His mouth felt really, really dry all of a sudden.  He cleared his throat, “Uh.  Yeah.  Yeah, okay.  Surprise me.”

Hermann kissed him again. 

This time they were interrupted by the sound of footsteps in the hallway.  Before they could disentangle from each other, Tendo was already walking past them.  “Hey, guys,” he said as he went by, giving them an approving wink.

After a couple minutes of silence, Newt looked at Hermann, who still kind of looked a bit like a deer caught in headlights.  “You know by tomorrow he’ll have told _everyone_ about this, right?”

Hermann’s expression softened and _again_ with that smile.  “I don’t mind.”

**Author's Note:**

> There is a specific reason Hermann has a specific time-frame in mind for having THE SEX, but that's a story for another day, because I am an evil troll.
> 
> ...Well, that, and originally the next week was also going to be part of this fic, but then I decided it deserved its own fic. Shh.


End file.
